The present invention relates to printing systems and more particularly, to a hand held mobile phone having an integral internal printer with print media supply.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile phone system having a fully integral internal compact printer and print media supply.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hand held mobile phone device with integral internal print apparatus and print media supply, said device comprising:
a mobile telephone unit for transmitting and receiving signals;
an internal print media storage unit;
processing means for processing said received and transmitted signals into a printable form;
a printhead and ink distribution unit assembly attached to said processing means for printing out said processed signals onto said print media; and
print media feed means to feed said print media from said storage means to said printhead for printing of said processed signal information thereon.
In a first preferred form the print media comprises paper or card sheets. The cards are preferably substantially the size of an average business card. Desirably the printhead and the card storage unit form a snap fit with the mobile telephone unit.
In a second preferred form the print media is in the form of a paper print roll and more preferably the print roll is provided in a cartridge that also includes an integral ink supply.
The printhead can comprise a single unit of the width of the paper or cards and may be formed via semiconductor fabrication techniques.
The card storage unit can be detachable from the apparatus. The printhead or printhead and ink distribution unit assembly can be separately detachable from the phone apparatus and the print media storage unit.
The printhead can comprise a full colour printhead attached via an ink distribution unit to a series of ink supply reservoirs to supply separate colours to each of the colours of the printhead.
The printhead can comprise an array of ink ejection nozzle arrangements wherein liquid can be ejected by means of activation of a corresponding thermal bend actuator attached to each of the nozzle arrangements.
The printhead preferably can include a series of attached ink supply reservoirs with a first reservoir being substantially larger then the others. The printhead and ink distribution unit and/or the print roll cartridge preferably can include an authentication chip which ensures use of only approved consumables and which can also be used to set a predetermined amount of usage of each item.
The hand held mobile phone can be of any kind and utilising any communications system so long as the transmitted signals can be processed into a printable form. Examples of suitable phone types and/or communications systems include GSM, CDMA, PHS, satellite phone systems, and third generation (3G) internet connected mobile phone systems including GPRS and WCDMA.